Virrueta A. Sanchez

Wednesday, June 28 2006 @ 03:46 AM EDT

Houston Chronicle -- Staff Sgt. Alberto V. Sanchez Jr. had planned to celebrate his fifth wedding anniversary next month while on leave from the war in Iraq.

Now his wife, Yesenia, is planning a funeral instead.

"It just takes a piece of your heart," his mother, Olga Sanchez in Houston, said through tears. "Nothing we can say or do will ever bring him back."

Sanchez, 33 and a Milby High School graduate, died Saturday from wounds he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Sanchez was assigned to the Army's 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Carson, Colo. He had served in the Army for nine years and had been in Iraq for six months, his mother said. He previously had served in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Korea, but this was his first experience in a war zone.

"He was lucky that he never served in a country that had a conflict," Olga Sanchez said. "This time he had to go, and we were all sad and worried.

"When it's your time, it's your time."

Alberto Sanchez chose the Army so he could earn money for college tuition, but the military became his career.

"He chose to be in the Army and he said, 'This is just a job — I've got to do what I've got to do,' " Olga Sanchez said.

Alberto Sr. and Olga Sanchez moved to Houston from Reynosa, Mexico, when their son was an infant. The couple also has another son and daughter.

"They're in disbelief like we are," said Olga Sanchez of the other adult children.

Yesenia, as well, is in mourning. Olga Sanchez said her son's widow is in Houston now, but will have to return to Colorado to retrieve their belongings. She said the family is expecting the soldier's body to be flown here in about a week.

The family last saw Sanchez in November before he deployed for Iraq.

"He never felt worried," his mother said. "If he felt worried he never showed it. Like I said, all the pictures we have of him he always had a big smile."

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